Reinforcement for brassieres and the like garments for ladies



Feb. 2, 1960 J. M. oTs 2,923,300

REINFORCEMENT FOR BRASSIERES AND THE LIKE GARMENTS FOR LADIES Filed July 25, 1957 INVENTOR M1025 By: [M HTTORNE y Unie Seats REINFORCEMENT FOR BRASSIERES LIKE GARM ENTS FOR LADIES Joseph Michel Ots, Rixensart, Belgium Application July 25, 1957, erlal No. 674,091 '4 Claims. (Cl.'12 8469) My inventionrelates to reinforcements for the caps of brassieres, bathing suits and the like garments covering ladies breasts, said means being intended to give the caps thedesired shape and to prevent the latter-from being moved apart by the traction stress exerted by the band in the ladies back.

' It is already known to provide .brassieres and .the like garments with reinforcements which'are gerie'rallyfof metal and of circular cross-section. Such reinforcements are however too rigid and apparent to view when the diameter of the wire used for their execution is comparatively large. In contradistinction, if said diameter is small the contacting surface between it and the body of the wearer is too small so that the wearers body may be bruised and even wounded.

It has been attempted to remove this drawback by resorting to armatures made of flat strap sections. This type of armature is mentioned in particular in the German Patent No. 851,033 dated October 19, 1950, in the Swiss Patent No. 231,240 dated June 18, 1943 and in the United States Patent No. 2,406,576 dated December 28, 1944. Now, the reinforcements having flat cross sections actually allow matching the shape of the chest but they do not match the lower parts of the breasts since their flattened cross section forms a sharp edge which enters the flesh when the band in the wearers back is properlytightened and also when the wearer is somewhat fat.

My invention has for its object to remove this drawback and to this end the reinforcement is made of a. shaped member having a concave surface bearing against: the body of the wearer and an opposite convex surfacedirected outwardly, the two surfaces being interconnected by rounded edge surfaces. This shaped member is folded, incurved and twisted in a manner such that the reinforcement follows the incurvation of the wearers chest and matches at least the lower part of the periphery of the breasts and is housed inside the recessed part of the body following the roots of the breasts.

According to a preferred embodiment of my invention, the rigidity of certain sections of the reinforcement which are subjected to a particular stress is increased without any increase in the bulk of said section as providedthrough the application of a material, say metal in the case of a metallic reinforcement, in the hollow formed by the concave surface.

In a preferred embodiment of said armature, the radius of curvature of the concave surface is smaller than that of the convex surface and this ensures a greater rigidity for the armature throughout its breadth.

In a further embodiment of the object of the invention, one edge of the shaped member, preferably the upper edge, is substantially thicker than the opposite edge.

Furthermore, the reinforcement according to the invention allows housing inside the hollow section formed by the convex surface the seams appearing in the fabric of the brassiere or the like'g'arm nflfit q over said forcement; a .y

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Further details and features; ofmy invention will appear in-the reading of the'followin'g description of various embodiments of my invention given by way of a mere exemplification and illustrated in-the accompanying draw:

ih'gs wherein: p

Fig. l is a perspective view of a brassiere provided with a reinforcement according to my invention. 1' Fig. 2 illustrates the "normalpositionof the reinforce ment with reference to thejbre'ast' Fig. 3 is a cross section through the standard non: thickened section of the reinforcement. Fig. 4 is a cross section through the thickened section: of the armature. i ff Fig. 5 is a cross section through the standard non-thick ened section of the armature in a modified embodiment,

Turning to the brassiere '1 illustrated in Fig. 1, improved member 2 is slid into the edges of the. caps" 3 and the ends 4 of the reinforcement 2 are provided with eyes S which allow securing the fabric of the caps to the reinforcement. v

The two loops 6 of the reinforcements 2 are incurved and twisted in a manner such that they follow the curvature of the chest and mate the lower part of the periphery of the roots of the breasts. The loops 6 are interconnected by a small central medial loop 7 or the like element but obviously the reinforcement may include two loops such as 6 which are independent of each other.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the reinforcement 2 is housed exactly inside the recesses formed by the roots of the breasts.

To prevent any bruising of the wearers body, the reinforcement 2 is bounded by an inner concave surface 8 engaging the body of the wearer and on its opposite side facing outwardly by a convex surface 9. For the reasons given hereinabove, the two surfaces 8 and 9 are interconnected by rounded edge surfaces 10 and 11 as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

The radius of curvature of the inner concave surface is smaller than that of the convex surface which ensures a greater rigidity for the reinforcement 2 throughout its length.

The sections of the reinforcement 2 subjected to particularly large stresses are reinforced by a layer of material 12 inside the recess of the reinforcement which is bounded by the outer convex surface 9. As clearly shown in Fig. 4, said layer does not increase by any means the bulk of the reinforcement and is therefore not visible from the outside.

It should be remarked that the twist given to the loops 6 of the armature 2 show the further advantage of ,increasing the resistance of the latter against the tractional stresses exerted by the band carrying the caps and extending across the back of the wearer. As a matter of fact, this twist constrains the direction of said stresses to coincide substantially with the major axes of the cross-sections of the outer ends 4 of the loops 6.

Obviously my invention is by no means limited to the sole embodiments described and illustrated and numerous modifications may be brought thereto without unduly widening thereby the scope of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims. In particular, in the case of the reinforcement illustrated in Fig. 5, its upper edge 10 is substantially thicker than the lower edge 11. The edge 10 being directed upwardly, the risk of bruising the flesh of the wearer is still further reduced.

What I claim-is:

I 1. A reinforcing device for a brassiere cup compris ing, in combination, an elongated arcuate springy rein forcing member having a channel-shaped cross-section with an inner body-facing convex and outer concave face, whereby said channel shape of said member increases the rigidity thereof, the convex shape of said inner face adapts thevsarne tosproperly support the breast vsurface along the lower portion thereof and the concaveshape of said outer faceadapts the same to receive a sea m of the brassiere extendingaiong the lower portion of the;

breast. 4 a 2,, A reinforcing wire member having archannel-shaiped cross-section with an inner body-facing convex and outer concave face,

whereby said channel vshape of said member increases the rigidity thereof, the convex shape of said inner face ing wire member having a channel-shaped cross-section with an inner body-facing convex and outer concave face, and edges between said faces, a channel bank along each of said edges, the cross-sectional thickness of the one channel bank being greater than that of the other chandevice fora brassiere cup comprising, in combination, an elongated arcuate spring-y reinforcing nel bank, whereby said channel shape of said member increases the rigidity thereof, the convex shape of said inner face adapts the same to properly support the breast surface along the lower portion thereof and the concave shape of said outer face adapts the same to receive a seam of the brassiere extending along the lower portion of the breast. 1 -;r

4, A breast support consisting of a singleelongated unitary strip of springy material adapted .to be attached at least at its free ends to a brassiere, said strip having a pair of arcuate breast supporting portions and an intermediate connecting portion interconnecting said arcuate I breast supporting portions and said strip being of channel shaped cross-section and having opposed faces one of which is concave and the other of which is convex so that said strip may be worn with convex face thereof directed toward the body to be comfortable.

7 References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Switzerland Apr. 1, 19521 

